Life in France seen through the round window of a straw-built grand design.

Willkommen Bienvenue Welcome

Welcome, gentle readers.

This is an everyday tale of regular folk, who moved from Sheffield to the deepest Corrèze in France Profonde and thence to the rather more cosmopolitan Lot in search of something… different. We certainly found it.

The Lot is an area of outstanding natural beauty. Reputedly, a famous TV globetrotter was asked where, of all the places in the world he had visited, he might return to. He answered, ‘The Lot’.

Fans of Channel 4’s Grand Designs will know that we built a somewhat quirky straw bale house-with-a-view here in the Lot, not far from the celebrated Dordogne river. You can read all about it in my book, Bloody Murder On The Dog's Meadow, or watch the re-runs of the programme on More 4, or view it on You Tube.

After a break in the proceedings to write a book or two, this blog now takes the form of an everyday journal. Sometimes things happen, sometimes they don't (but the art school dance goes on forever). I hope it will give you an entertaining insight into what it's like to live in a foreign country; what it's like in the slow lane as an ex-pat Brit in deepest France.

I shall undertake to update this once or twice a week, unless absent on leave. Comments always welcomed, by the way, but I do tend to forget what buttons to click in order to answer them.

Monday, December 18, 2017

December: Conspiracies

I've never been a great one for conspiracy theories. Apart,
that is, from the Kennedy Brothers, and probably Martin Luther King. Oh and
maybe Anne Boleyn's fall from grace. And Caesar's infamous removal, of course.
And Catesby & Co. Rasputin's murder? Hitler's attempted assassination, too.
Perhaps the partition of India and no doubt of Iraq, Palestine and Ireland. Oh,
and there's Brexit now. And Russia's role in Trumpton.

Put like that, there have been quite a lot of conspiracies
that prompt a theory. Up until now, though, I hadn't given much credence to the
various 9/11 theories that have been bandied about in the cyber world for over
a decade. But then I had two meetings this month with strange men that continue
to make me think.

The first was with a stranger on a plane. I'd turned up at
Limoges airport in ridiculously good time lest some unforeseen jam on the A20 delay
me. (Apart from the two months of high summer, it's more of a vehicular vein
rather than an artery). While queuing up to check in, I watched with barely
disguised contempt as some aging Brit flirted with the uniformed wench behind
the desk. His was the aye-aye darlin'nudge-nudge school of charm. Rather
like the publican in East Enders played by a minor comedian who used to bellow Rick-ie! at his stepson or whatever
relation he was. I made a mental note to avoid him like the plague.

I managed to do so until we were on board the airplane.
There was an air of inevitability about the unoccupied seat beside him near the
back. He was busy dispensing bonhomie to the hostess when I realised with a
sinking heart that my allocated place was indeed right next to him. No sooner
had I parked my backside, strapped up and opened my book than he started
talking to me. Sometimes I resist. Sometimes I realise it's futile. This was
one of the latter occasions.

His name was Stan or Len or something monosyllabic. His
accent seemed to spell Essex and I soon discovered that he'd lived in France
for long enough to learn the language well enough to get by. The accent, I
guessed, would leave something to be desired, but hey – who am I to cast
nasturtiums? He'd been in publishing and had sold up just before it became the
thing of a pre-digital past. One of those astute self-taught businessmen of the
Alan Sugar genus, perhaps, who have an instinct for the main chance.

I gave up any attempt to read my book. Voluntarily. The
conversation became increasingly fascinating, instructive even, and I realised
that if I could swallow my prejudices, there was a lot to learn. Swallow I did.
The conversation turned from our partners to our offspring to the big scheme of
things and our general sense of well being. I don't know how we got from there
to 9/11, but we managed it seamlessly. And he told me all about his... if not
obsession, then pet theory: that the collapse of the twin towers defied all
laws of physics. I'd read something similar many years ago and kind of shelved
it as the work of people without better things to do with their lives.

But the way Stan or Len described it to me made all those
horribly vivid images come alive once more – but as if seen this time from a
different angle. Through a prism darkly. What about the motivation, though? The
details he offered boiled down once again to filthy lucre. Isn't it incredible
what people will do just to have so much more of the stuff than can make you
happy? But surely no one would sacrifice all those office workers who either
stayed to be incinerated or leapt from floors so high that one has to hope that
they passed out before impact with the concrete below. Surely? He shrugged as
if to suggest, Make your own mind up on
that one, Sunny Jim.

One thing about this type of conversation is that it makes
the journey go much quicker than usual. In no time, we were in the Disunited
Kingdom once more. I thanked him for the entertainment and a potentially useful
bit of avuncular advice he gave me, bade him a happy stay and focused on
getting now from B to C.

And after that I thought little more of what he'd suggested,
until a visit from an off-grid guy around these parts I refer to as a 'maverick
American'. He must spend many hours holed up wherever he is hidden, delving
into the darkest corners of the world via his laptop. He let slip something
about his pet theory. On falling for the bait, it turned out to be the
self-same theory that Stan or Len had described up in the clouds. So much of a
pet theory, in fact, that his e-mail signature contains a cartoon of high
financiers and politicians gathered around a detonator linked by fuse to the
twin towers. Primed to plunge the handle.

He, too, outlined some of the details that defied even the
most basic laws of physics. I was never one for science at school, but I could
see that what he said made sense. But
surely, I suggested, no one would be
so evil as to sacrifice hundreds of his fellow countrymen. Oh no? he replied. Take a look at history, my friend. He has a point. Never mind the
usual premier-division suspects. What about Napoleon and that long march into
Russia? And Robert Mugabe for that matter? While we're at, let's not be vague,
let's blame Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig. Although in his case, personal
gain probably didn't come into it. More the crass stupidity born of innate
privilege.

Oscar Wilde, in his usual memorable way, had some pertinent bon mots to say on the subject of my
disbelief. So memorable that I've forgotten the precise details, but something
about our propensity to believe the impossible, but to deny the improbable.
Thanks to Oscar and the revelations of strangers, I'm now delving more into the
improbable – and do I not like what I find!?

But hey! Christmas is almost upon us once more. It's that
merry and joyful time of year when you can drink enough and eat enough and
watch enough telly to anaesthetise your cerebellum. What a lovely word that is –
to describe something essentially grey and spongy that resembles a giant sodden
walnut. I'm going to give my walnut a rest for a few days and focus my thoughts
on Father Christmas' customary struggle to wriggle down all those chimneys with
a sack of presents. He never seems to get his red suit or his white beard
sooty. Have you noticed that?

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Camp Street

About Me

Born in London, raised in Belfast, further-educated at Exeter and Sussex universities, I'm a professional dilettante, a family man and tireless dog-walker. You can listen to Lost & Found, my monthly radio show on www.expatsradio.com and check out my author page on Amazon.